Mike Garrett, USC's athletic director, said that although it was difficult to take the financial hit, the decision to ban alcohol was the right the move. "For the welfare of our spectators and fans, it's worth it," he said.
In his letter, Sample wrote: "Any fan who possesses alcohol inside the stadium, who acts in a drunken or disorderly way, or who uses threatening or obscene language, will be evicted from the Coliseum and will permanently lose the privilege of buying tickets to our home football games."
A "Trojan Spirit Code" was included in the mailing. That code and the letter were also included in a USC publication with a circulation of about 190,000, Sample said.
The school president wrote that the spirit code was developed "because of the noticeable rise in recent years of incidents involving the use of alcohol. Longtime attendees at our games have witnessed an escalation in the rude behavior of fans, rudeness that is almost always exacerbated by alcohol consumption."
Sample noted that the deterioration in fan behavior was a nationwide trend, "not a USC phenomenon."
But he wrote that he had "received dozens of letters from irate Trojans who say they can't and they won't take their families to USC games anymore because drunken fans create a hostile and frightening environment.
"Only a small number of fans -- many of them USC students, and some of them even USC alumni -- cause trouble at our games. Moreover, alcohol is almost always involved whenever a few fans begin to engage in obnoxious or threatening behavior."
On Wednesday, Sample said the reaction to his decision has "overwhelmingly been positive."
He said his decision to end alcohol sales at USC home games has been building over the years and was made without input from the NCAA. He said he was especially put off by behavior he witnessed while strolling the concourse between the stadium gates and the tunnel entrances.
"People were coming to make this a beer party rather than drinking some beer while watching the game," said Sample, who added, "We want to make our games family-friendly."
Sample said he recalled his experience at a Los Angeles Raider game when the NFL team played at the Coliseum.
"It was almost impossible to avoid a fistfight," he said. "No matter how docile you were, you couldn't bring your daughter, your wife, your mother-in-law. I don't want that for USC."
